Audio Mixer Crackling

[kbadr]

We have an old Mackie 16 (I think) channel mixer. It has a couple dead channels, and a few of the faders crackle when they're used. Is this something that cleaning the unit will help, or is it just time to replace the thing?

 

[museav]

Some of the old Mackies are infamous for internal ribbon connector issues and for introducing noise via the insert connections. In many cases these can be pretty simple to fix. Sometimes the ribbon cables just requiring reseating them properly and the inserts simply need a jack inserted and removed a few times to clean them. There's probably some local companies that could take a look at it without spending too much.

 

[bishopthomas]

Brad is spot on except for one thing: that it won't cost too much to have someone look at it. Mackies are VERY labor intensive just to get the lid off, as every single knob and fader cap must be removed. If it's only a small 16 channel console then this shouldn't be too bad, but the SR series (SR24 and SR32) is a huge pain. If there's anyone at your venue/company who feels comfortable taking on this project I would go that route first. The repair costs would likely be more than your mixer is worth.

 

[coolbeam]

Many a console has been resurrected (temporarily at least), and some destroyed(!), by an application of DeoxIt FaderLube.

 

[CSCTech]

I would do some of the suggestions before spending the money, remove the fader caps, blow them out with some compressed air (can) etc. If not I would take it to a shop unless someone knows enough about it or electronics to do it themselves. Our Mackie VLZ SR 24-4's lamp connector has no power to it (learned that after I bought that lamp..), so we had someone who would of known how to fix the lamp connector, but once we started getting into removing the lid we gave up because we didn't realize how hard it was going to be.
Lot's of caps of course, but the metal is literaly bent up and around the sides so it would be pretty dangerous for us to do. We were very surprised when we saw this, must hold it together better or something.

 

[museav]

Brad is spot on except for one thing: that it won't cost too much to have someone look at it.

Well, what the person paying for it to be looked at and the person being paid to look at it might differ on what they consider is "too much".